Simon Pagenaud posts fastest time of Saturday's morning practice

In Saturday’s morning practice, Simon Pagenaud, who races the No. 77 car for Schmidt Hamilton Motorsports, posted the session’s fastest time of 1 minute, 18.4391 seconds. That time was better than the 1:19.4792 registered Friday afternoon by rookie Tristan Vautier, who flew by reigning race champion Ryan Hunter-Reay’s 1:20.8632 set Friday morning.

Pagenuad, a 29-year-old native of Poitiers, France, has two top 5 showings this year, including a victory at the Indy Dual in Detroit. He currently ranks fifth in the IZOD IndyCar Series championship with 380 points, which is 99 points behind leader Helio Castroneves.

Scott Dixon, who drives the No. 9 car for Target Chip Ganassi Racing and was the first one on the track Saturday, enjoyed the second-fastest time of the morning, finishing a lap of the 2.02-mile course in 1:18.5486.

Will Power (1:18.5826), Sebastien Bourdais (1:18.6597) and James Jakes (1:18.7980) rounded out the top five.